Lecture on Emily Brontë, Wuthering Heights, and Gothic Romanticism Emily Brontë (1818–1848) Backstory - Author of Wuthering Heights, 1847 ​ ​ th - She died a year later at 30 years old on December 19 ,​ of tuberculosis ​ - Sister of Charlotte Brontë, author of Jane Eyre. - From Thornton, Yorkshire, England. - She wrote a book of poems with her sisters Anne and Charlotte under the pseudonyms, Ellis, Acton, and Curris. - They had to use men’s names so that people would buy their book. Many women had to do this well up to the 1950s in both England and North America. (S.E. Hinton, author of The Outsiders). ​ - Since the death of her mother and two older sisters, the rest of the Brontë siblings were homeschooled and all loved partaking in literary projects with each other, most specifically, poetry. - Emily was very shy and very introverted, she loved reading books along the moors of England and befriended many stray dogs; she was a passionate animal lover. Family Tragedies - Her mother, Maria Branwell Brontë, died in 1821 (Emily was 3) to ovarian cancer when she was 38. - Her sisters, Maria and Elizabeth, died in 1824 at age 11, and 10, respectively from a typhoid epidemic at their boarding school (Emily was 6). - Her maternal aunt, Elizabeth Branwell, who stepped in after her mother passed away, died in 1842 from, a bowel obstruction (Emily was 24) when she was 66. - Her brother Branwell died in October 1848 at the age of 31 (Emily was 30) of tuberculosis, just before she did. - Her sister Anne, died of tuberculosis at age 29 in May 1849, just six months after Emily. - Her sister Charlotte, died during childbirth in 1855, at the age of 39. - Her father, Patrick Brontë died in 1861, the last member of his family to die, and at the age of 84, and the only one to make it past 40 years of age. The deathly tragedies Emily experienced since 3 years old up until her own young death, set both a realistic premise for her sole novel, Wuthering Heights, and targeted her audience’s attention ​ ​ through gossip. - If she hadn’t died so young and didn’t have a family with the same curse, her novel would have probably either barely been read, or quickly forgotten. Victorian Era - Era of Queen Victoria, from June 1837 until 1901 - Began with the Reform Act in 1832 - Representation of the People Act 1832: an act of parliament, which introduced ​ changes to the electoral system of England and Wales. - People started to have a voice, not just rich people with power - Designed to prevent one person from controlling every neighbourhood (borough) - You had to own land and have a hearth big enough to hold a pot. - The idea was that you had to personally take part in the community you controlled. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jvpgqFdjV8o (9min) ​ Us gained independence in 1776 and Canada in 1867 The Victorian Period (1837-1901): Four Contexts 1. Industrialisation - The first transformation from an agricultural industry to an industrial one. - Caused changes in family structure, to want to be more poised and “royal” - Created much pressure for everyone, and was taken on the children especially. 2. Imperialism - A policy or ideology where extending a country’s rule over a foreign country through military action and political power to gain more economic control - Examples, US over Vietnam, Britain over India, and Germany over Poland. - Means “supreme power” 3. Darwinism - The theory of biological evolution - This brought the idea that the more important a person is, through evolution, that race becomes the “supreme” species. 4. Feminism th - Started with Mary Wollstonecraft in the 18 ​ century England ​ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ffv3GzOU5D8 (8min) ​ Romantic Period https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OiRWBI0JTYQ (10min) ​ Wuthering Heights Themes “Young-Adult Fiction”: a category of fiction marketed to teens; although this fiction encompasses ​ diverse styles and genres, the search for identity and coming-of-age process are defining themes. Gothic fiction: literature of horror, terror, and supernaturalism British Romantic Period → 1770s-1880s - realism - irony - narrative economy - free-indirect narration Gothic Fiction: the Gothic is a popular genre that emerged in Britain in the late 18th century. Gothic ​ novelists sought to elicit horror and terror in readers. Supernatural elements (esp. Ghosts and monsters) play an important role. Particular settings include remote and foreboding castles and dilapidated, haunted abbeys. Stock characters include 1) the persecuted Gothic heroine, 2) the Gothic villain, and 3) the valiant hero. A RECIPE FOR WRITING A GOTHIC NOVEL (written in 1797) Take—An old castle, half of it ruinous. A long gallery, with a great many doors, some secret ones. Three murdered bodies, quite fresh. As many skeletons, in chests and presses. An old woman hanging by the neck; with her throat cut. Assassins and desperadoes, quant. suff. Noises, whispers, and groans, threescore at least. Mix them together, in the form of three volumes, to be taken at any of the watering places, before going to bed. Novel of sensibility: a type of novel popular in the 18th century. Novels of sensibility (aka ​ sentimental novels) feature protagonists who are highly sensitive and emotional, and whose capacity to feel deeply and sympathize with others indicates their moral virtue. Bildungsroman: a novel of growth and education; a coming-of-age novel. Wuthering Heights Background Emily Brontë wrote Wuthering Heights during a time when capitalism and the Industrial Revolution were the dominant forces in the British economy and society. th The 19 ​ century in England was a time of rapid, often confusing, and occasionally violent social ​ change. Groups opposed to the growing industrialization of England, such as the Luddites, engaged in violent riots, destroying wool and cotton mills. - Luddites: a member of any of the bands of English workers who destroyed machinery, ​ especially in cotton and woolen mills, that they believed was threatening their jobs (1811–16). th While wealth had traditionally been measured by land ownership, the 18 ​ century had begun a ​ trend toward a cash-based economy, and the Industrial Revolution created a middle class that was in many ways more economically powerful than its land-owning superiors. As a result of the changing economy, the traditional relationships between the classes and the social structure began to change. The power of the yeomen, or the respectable farming class, as well as the traditional power-holding gentry was being challenged by the newly wealthy capitalists. Each of these classes is represented in the novel by various characters. - Hareton is a member of the respectable farming class, the Lintons are the gentry, while Heathcliff makes his fortune as a capitalist. As the economic power of the new capitalists grew, so did their demand for political power. With the increase in political power came the movement for social acceptance. Wealthy industrialists challenged the traditional definition of a gentleman and claimed the right to be called gentlemen by virtue of their new economic and political power. - Traditionally, being a gentleman was a right of birth, but he also needed to portray an upstanding moral character. The changing notion of a gentleman and the shifting relationship between the classes are found in Wuthering Heights when Isabella, a member of the gentry, marries Heathcliff, a new capitalist, a union that would never have occurred if not for the changing status of the capitalists. Class relationships are also prominent in Catherine’s decision to wed Edgar instead of Heathcliff because of Edgar’s superior social standing at the time. Heathcliff as a class Byronic hero. - The Byronic hero was defined by Lord Byron’s epic narrative poem, Childe Harold’s ​ Pilgrimage, 1812. ​ - The Byronic hero is generally a flawed character with the following attributes: A Byronic hero: can be conceptualized as an extreme variation of the Romantic hero archetype. ​ - Traditional Romantic heroes tend to be defined by their rejection or questioning of standard social conventions and norms of behavior, their alienation from the larger society, their focus on the self as the center of existence, and their ability to inspire others to commit acts of good and kindness. - Intelligent, cunning, ruthless, arrogant, depressive, violent, self-aware, emotionally and intellectually tortured, traumatized, highly emotional, manipulative, self-serving, spiritually doubtful, often reckless or suicidal, prone to bursts of anger, decidedly prone to substance abuse, dedicated to pursuing matters of justice over matters of legality, given to self-destructive impulses, and seductive and sexually appealing. Wuthering Heights is highly praised for the unique narrative technique Emily Brontë used to execute the novel, often referred to as a “frame narrative”. - Frame Narrative: is a literary technique that serves as a companion piece to a story within a ​ story, where an introductory or main narrative sets the stage either for a more emphasized second narrative or for a set of shorter stories. - Nelly Dean’s version told by Lockwood, making her a homodiegetic narrator, which means that she is also a character in the story she is telling. The narrative structure has been compared to a series of Matryoshka dolls, as the levels of the story similarly nest inside of each other. The two primary narrators are Mr. Lockwood and Nelly Dean, but other narrators arise throughout the novel when Nelly quotes what other characters have told her. In this manner, the action of Wuthering Heights is told via eyewitness narration by people directly involved in the events they describe. The narrative form allows Brontë to bring the reader closer to the events of the novel. The frame narrative form of the novel adds complexity for the reader. Lockwood is the outer layer of the narrative, pulling the story together in his diary.